Nintendo looking to release roughly 20-30 indie games on Switch per week in the future
Nintendo spoke about indie games as part of its 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Former president Tatsumi Kimishima, director / managing officer Shinya Takahashi, and senior executive officer Susumu Tanaka all spoke on this front.
Some notable information was shared across the responses. Takahashi said that some indies are already million sellers on Switch, and Nintendo is “looking to release around 20 to 30 indie games” on the system each week in the future. Kimishima added, “We are currently working towards reaching 1,500 software titles developed for Nintendo platforms using Unity.”
Below are the full comments from Kimishima, Takahashi, and Tanaka:
Kimishima
Offering enjoyable first-party games throughout the world will continue to be one of our strengths, but increasing the number of people who make games to be played on Nintendo platforms is also very important for growing our business. That is why we are working to create an environment that makes development easier, and simplifying the process of publishing games on Nintendo Switch. This has resulted in a large number of people playing an array of indie games on Nintendo Switch.
Takahashi
During development on Nintendo Switch, creating a development environment where it would be easy to create games was one of our top priorities. One of the good things to come from this is the large number of indie games, especially in Europe and North America. We do not think of indie games as competition for the large-scale games we develop ourselves. Rather, I think these indie games are what really invigorate Nintendo Switch overall.
Tanaka
We started working with indie developers during the Wii U generation. For Nintendo Switch, we set up a development environment that supports Unity middleware, which is used on smartphones and other platforms. We are also actively engaging with indie developers at video game-focused shows and other events in different regions. We also had a Nintendo booth at the BitSummit indie game event held in Kyoto, where we showcased some games. Some of the indie games already released have gone on to become million sellers worldwide. In the future, we are looking to release
around 20 to 30 indie games on Nintendo Switch per week, and we definitely expect to see some great games among them.Kimishima
We are currently working towards reaching 1,500 software titles developed for Nintendo platforms using Unity. I think that will give you an idea of how much it has grown.
